As we enter 2017, I find myself reflecting on the changes I have seen in the digital marketing sphere over the past 15 years. When I started at OffWhite, digital marketing was dominated by websites and what we would now consider very rudimentary SEO. That was pretty much it.

With the advent of social media, analytics, marketing automation and too many other digital spokes to list, we now have so many options that we often lose track of the ultimate goal of all digital marketing: connecting with a customer at the right moment to create a lasting relationship that translates into sales—and in a perfect world—brand advocacy.

Despite all of the changes in digital marketing, in the life sciences B2B world, your website is still the center of it all. Every email marketing campaign, social post, content marketing tool, lead generation effort and advertising activity draws customers and prospects to your website, where you can capture their information and provide personalized content that delivers value and creates customer loyalty.

So how do you know if your website is doing a good job? Here are 10 key performance indicators of a strong website presence. Read on and see how your website stacks up.

Easy to Find. Before your customers can engage with your brand, they must be able to find you. SEO is ever evolving, and we expect 2017 to see even more changes, especially in mobile. It's not all about SEO though. Paid traffic can also generate new business, if monitored correctly so you don't overspend. In addition, third-party traffic sources such as social media, directories, forums and even paid product listings provide quality traffic and leads. The trick is to monitor incoming traffic and leverage the sources that generate the most (and best) leads.

Inform Customers. Once your customers (and prospects) have found you, your website needs to deliver the right information at the right time, speaking to where your customer is within the buyer journey. If a customer is searching for application-specific information that fulfills a specific need, your website's content must be categorized in ways that are simple for customers to locate, even if there are multiple pathways to reach the end goal. Which leads us to...

Lead Customers on a Journey. Not only should your website inform customers, but it should also take them on a brand journey that tells a story. Whether you incorporate customer success stories or simply tell your own corporate story in an engaging way, customers should always be able to see the next step, or call to action. Based on their location in the sales cycle, your website should lead customers to download resources, request quotes, place orders or connect with your company in other meaningful ways. All of these calls to action, by the way, provide your sales team with leads, which we will review further in #6.

Personalize Experiences. Once you have acquired customers, it is your website's job to recognize them when they return. Customers, and even prospects, who have shown an interest in particular products and topics in the past should be targeted for personalized content that should be of interest based on previous visits. Cross selling similar products and services can also be achieved when personalized content pathways are created and used to their fullest potential on your website.

Engage Customers. In addition to providing on-site personalized engagement, your website should easily tie into other engagement platforms, such as social media and email marketing. By connecting with customers across multiple platforms, with consistent messaging that ties into your overall brand story, you solidify your position and grow relationships. A simple way to re-engage customers who have already visited your website is with remarketing campaigns.

Generate Leads and Sales. Engaged customers not only result in repeat sales, but they become brand advocates that in turn help you generate more leads. Your website needs to be prepared to nurture leads with multiple sales pathways depending on the customer's areas of interest and place in the buyer journey. Existing customers need nurturing too. Value-added content marketing tools such as ebooks, white papers and other resources help you attain leads and stay in front of existing customers with helpful information.

Be Agile. The speed of business does not allow you to wait for a programmer to add new products, resources and other valuable information to your website. Often, blogs and responses to industry news are entry points for new customers. Your website needs to be built on a platform that lets you respond to the market in a timely manner. Anything less puts you behind the competition.

Support Your Team. While your external website is designed to inform, engage and incite action from your customers, your website should have a separate, often hidden or password-protected, area for your internal team. File sharing, sales training, calendars and other internal resources such as webinar recordings, product presentations and sample proposals are easily accessible via Digital Asset Management, all connected to your website.

Tie All of Your Marketing Together. If everything you do—from paid ads and media placements to social media and email marketing—drives customers back to your website, your website must set the tone for your overall brand. Many website platforms can be integrated with CRM, email marketing, accounting systems and more to provide information on multiple data points, all in one cohesive system.

Track Success. Having all of these tools in one place is great, but it means little if you cannot track the results. Your website should either contain server-side tracking tools; integrate with Google Analytics, HubSpot or other third-party software; or offer a combination of both. With a robust tracking system, you can determine the ROI on each of your marketing efforts, making budget planning and campaign management much simpler. Having the ability to track leads generated and customers gained across multiple channels removes guesswork and allows you to focus on conversion rate optimization.

To learn more about digital marketing and how you can put your website to work for you, contact Abby Spung or Bill White at 800.606.1610.